Advances in computer technology have enabled amateur cartoonists and even children to produce animated videos or cartoons of exceptionally high quality. A wide array of products is commercially available to be used for this purpose, with applications in both the home entertainment and professional sectors. By way of example, Harmony™ and Opus™ 2D animation software packages (both available from Toon Boom Animation, Inc.; Montreal, Canada), KToon™ 2D animation toolkit (an open source product available from Toonka Films), and Flash MX™ 2004 (available from Macromedia, Inc.; San Francisco, Calif.) provide for the creation of digital animation with a great number of features. Similarly, the Massive Live™ 3D animation system (available from Massive Software; Auckland, New Zealand) allows a user to generate crowd-related visual effects for film and television in which characters can be designed with a set of reactions to events taking place around them. Digital photographs or other images can be readily imported into animation schemes created with the aforementioned products. Such photographs can be edited with one or more of a vast array of tools to enhance, distort or otherwise manipulate the image. Technology in this field continues to develop at a rapid pace; continually bringing new products to market that provide end users with tools to create animated videos and cartoons with ever-increasing ease.
In a related area, a number of video games include animation-related features that rely on user input of graphical content for entertainment purposes. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,873 describes an early-generation video arcade game that incorporates a photographic image of a player at predetermined points in the game. U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,967 describes a more contemporary video game system that incorporates a variation on this idea. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,389 describes a technique for creating personalized video games in which, for example, a digital photograph of the user's face is superimposed on the face of a character in the game.
There remains a need in the art for additional products that enable one to integrate photographic content, such as the digital image of one's face, with animation technology to produce personalized animated videos or cartoons for both professional and entertainment purposes.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings. All references cited herein are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth.